Beneficiaries of The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Joint Venture undergraduate scholarship who have consistently earned excellent grades have been inducted into a new mentorship programme aimed at grooming them for entry into the oil and gas industry and motivating them to maintain their top academic performance. Eighteen out of the 22 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) selected students from Abia, Bayelsa, Imo, Delta and Rivers states visited SPDC’s corporate headquarters in Port Harcourt on Wednesday.
‘Our Shell Meet Scholars programme is an extension of our joint venture’s education initiative for undergraduates in our areas of operation. It is our way of giving recognition to beneficiaries of our university scholarship scheme who have consistently maintained a CGPA of 4.5 and above in their courses of study,’ said SPDC’s Social Investment and Social Performance Manager, Gloria Udoh.
She said that with the programme, the scholarship scheme has taken a more sustainable character as SPDC will encourage the 22 students to maintain their current academic grades by having SPDC mentors assigned to them. ‘They also qualify for automatic internship placement in the company and free enrolment to the Shell-built Port Harcourt Literary Society Library,’ Udoh added.
The students spent the day with SPDC management and learned more about the company’s employee attraction and retention policies. They were also given insight into the great opportunities ahead of them if they maintained their current academic performance.
SPDC’s Social Investment team made the students SPDC partners in the Shell Campus Ambassadors Programme (CAP), an initiative designed to prepare them for possible employment in the oil and gas industry after graduation. They were also assigned mentors who will encourage and guide them through their academic programmes.
The elated students thanked SPDC for the transparency of the scholarship award process and pledged to work hard to be worthy ambassadors of the company.
A total of 8,145 students from SPDC operational areas have benefited from the joint venture’s regular secondary school scholarship scheme in the past six years. The university scholarship scheme is a natural progression of the scholarship scheme for students at the secondary school level.
